Last Monday I had a doc appt. and asked him about the O2 I hadnt studied it yet so I couldnt educate him about it and he acted as though he had never heard of the therapy, but did tell me that Welders bottle could be contaminated. In all my years around a torch never seen anything but O2 in em. They always seem to mix well with Acetylene anyhow. Anyone ever heard of this as a problem.
Jim

67skylark wrote on Mar 20^th, 2009 at 7:08pm:

Last Monday I had a doc appt. and asked him about the O2 I hadnt studied it yet so I couldnt educate him about it and he acted as though he had never heard of the therapy, but did tell me that Welders bottle could be contaminated. In all my years around a torch never seen anything but O2 in em. They always seem to mix well with Acetylene anyhow. Anyone ever heard of this as a problem. Jim

 Nope.

Kinder gentler Potter

The medical 02 suppliers would love for you to think that.  There is no difference.   Oh....except for the cost.  They used to want to charge me 42.00 for an e-tank.     My M tank of welders cost me 23.00  and I get 3 to 4 times as many hits aborted.


I only use my e-tanks when I need to be portable.  

I have never heard of a contaminated O2 tank. With some of the high tech stuff being done these days, they can't afford to have impurities ruining the welds on expensive stock. If you want to be really, really sure - buy a new tank or two and have them refilled.

The product inside is indeed identical. I even drove to the largest O2 supplier in my state and visually and verbally verified it.

I use welding O2 in a "T" size tank which stays in my garage and serves as the mother ship for my smaller travel tanks. For about $100, I bought a very well built transfill kit specifically designed for filling small O2 tanks. I use the big tank directly when I'm home.

I paid $45 for a year lease on their big tank and I pay $18.50 per “T” tank swap which holds over 9,000 liters – about the same as (14) E tanks.

Keep in mind that ALL welding tanks, large and small have a CGA-540 threaded fitting on top. This is the same type used on LARGE medical O2 tanks too, so if you buy a regulator with CGA-540 style fitting, it will fit either.

In order to use smaller, portable medical O2 tanks, you will need a connector type referred to as a CGA-870 style.  You can either buy a spare regulator with this kind of connector, or an adapter to use your "big tank" regulator on your small medical tank(s).

Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that you actually breathe welding O2 because it's not medically certified. Let me know if you need more info about this hypothetical situation.

Marc

From what I know about welding (not a whole lot) and from talking to a lot of professional welders, they NEED 100% oxygen to get clean, solid welds.  If there is any contamination in there, it causes bad welds.

In talking to two different oxygen tank filler companies, they both told me that they use the same equipment, same procedure, and same standards, whether they are filling medical or welding tanks.

Chuck

Chuck,

Just in the interest of clarity: Welding and medical O2 tanks are indeed filled with the same product but the tanks are handled differently.

Legally, before refilling medical O2 tanks, they have to be evacuated (an actual vacuum pump is used) in order to:
Remove any remaining product
Remove all moisture (moisture cannot exist in a vacuum)

The common practice for refill of welding O2 tanks is to blow off anything left in the tank, then refill. Pulling a vacuum is considered to be costly, time consuming and pointless because the tank had O2 in it to begin with.

Marc

Thanks, Marc!  The guys that I spoke to did not mention that process!

I bow to your superior information!

Thanks for pointing it out, clearing that up.

Chuck

ClusterChuck wrote on Mar 21^st, 2009 at 7:43am:

I bow to your superior information!

Not superior, Sir. Supplemental  ;)

Wow y'all sure do answer a question. And I'm greatfull. I didn't buy the contamination theory either. I felt sure that the gas shop would fill both style tanks with the same product. And I have never seen anyone leave any type of gas bottle open when empty. You always close the valve to disconnect. So the chance of the bottle pulling any other vapor in would be super small. Even when the tank is empty they almost always have a bit of pressure in them.
Thanks for the replies
Jim

Medical grade oxygen is nearly pure where as welding or aviation oxygen has un-regulated impurities.
Lar

Hi Larry,

I most certainly agree with the regulation part as I've already posted at length about that.

I'm genuinely interested to learn more about the specifics of the  "unregulated impurities" that you refer to in your post. What are they? Where do they come from? How do they get into the liquid O2 tanks in the manufacturing process? I've invested a lot of time and effort looking into this and I'm always eager to learn more.

Years ago, there were several grades for Industrial, Aviation, Medical1, Medical2, etc.  Now, they are the identical product unless you are referring to 99.9999% scientific gas - then I understand your point - but that stuff costs about as much as Platinum.....

Marc

Larry wrote on Mar 21^st, 2009 at 9:47pm:

Medical grade oxygen is nearly pure where as welding or aviation oxygen has un-regulated impurities. Lar

As Marc said, could you elaborate on this?  What are the percentages of the impurities?  What ARE the impurities?  What are your sources for this information?

Chuck

Larry wrote on Mar 21^st, 2009 at 9:47pm:

Medical grade oxygen is nearly pure where as welding or aviation oxygen has un-regulated impurities. Lar

Crap.

    Kinder gentler Potter

I started out using medical grade 02 and now only use welders.  Both have the same end result..........aborted ch.  I can't tell the difference between the two.

Beth

Larry wrote on Mar 21^st, 2009 at 9:47pm:

Medical grade oxygen is nearly pure where as welding or aviation oxygen has un-regulated impurities. Lar

I wonder what aviation oxygen is used for? To boost the jet engines?   ::)


                 [smiley=smokin.gif]

As Batch says in the link to the left. Aviation grade O2 is supplied to pilots, all fighter pilots breath it from start of misson to end. It would be what you would breath if the little masks ever fell down in an airliner, I think, not sure of that. It's also what all the Astrounaunts had to breath until Apollo 1 fire.
Jim